Anabasis eBook

“If then you approve of such doings, have a
resolution passed to that effect, so that, with a
prospect of like occurrences in the future, a man
may privately set up a guard and do his best to fix
his tent where he can find a strong position with
a commanding site. If, however, these seem to
you to be the deeds rather of wild beasts than of human
beings, bethink you of some means by which to stay
them; or else, in heaven’s name, how shall we
do sacrifice to the gods gladly, with impious deeds
to answer for? or how shall we, who lay the knife to
each other’s throats, give battle to our enemies?
What friendly city will receive us when they see rampant
lawlessness in our midst? Who will have the courage
to afford us a market, when we prove our worthlessness
in these weightiest concerns? and what becomes of the
praise we expect to win from the mouths of men? who
will vouchsafe it to us, if this is our behaviour?
Should we not ourselves bestow the worst of names
on the perpetrators of like deeds?”

After this they rose, and, as one man, proposed that
the ringleaders in these matters should be punished;
and that for the future, to set an example of lawlessness
should be forbidden. Every such ringleader was
to be prosecuted on the capital charge; the generals
were to bring all offenders to the bar of justice;
prosecutions for all other misdemeanours committed
since the death of Cyrus were to be instituted; and
they ended by constituting the officers into a board
of dicasts[2]; and upon the strong representation of
Xenophon, with the concurrence of the soothsayers,
it was resolved to purify the army, and this purification
was made.

[2] I.e. a board of judges or jurors.

VIII

It was further resolved that the generals themselves
should undergo a 1 judicial examination in reference
to their conduct in past time. In course of investigation,
Philesius and Xanthicles respectively were condemned
to pay a sum of twenty minae, to meet a deficiency
to that amount incurred during the guardianship of
the cargoes of the merchantmen. Sophaenetus was
fined ten minae for inadequate performance of his
duty as one of the chief officers selected. Against
Xenophon a charge was brought by certain people, who
asserted that they had been beaten by him, and framed
the indictment as one of personal outrage with violence[1].
Xenophon got up and demanded that the first speaker
should state “where and when it was he had received
these blows.” The other, so challenged,
answered, “When we were perishing of cold and
there was a great depth of snow.” Xenophon
said: “Upon my word, with weather such
as you describe, when our provisions had run out, when
the wine could not even be smelt, when numbers were
dropping down dead beat, so acute was the suffering,
with the enemy close on our heels; certainly, if at
such a season as that I was guilty of outrage, I plead
guilty to being a more outrageous brute than the ass,